It is well known in the art to provide a blading boot possessing interchangeable frames, assemblies, mountings, or the like for enabling the boot to be deployed in a number of different skating environments. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,534,912 to Laub et al discloses such a boot providing for its use for roller blading, ice-skating, or skiing, the boot being formed with suitable trucks adapted for those uses. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 6,270,089 to Marechal describes a boot assembly having spaced apart mountings on its sole for the reception of specially designed mounts for different trucks. US Patent Application No. 2007/0096408 to Yang also provides for a multi-functional boot with interchangeable blades for roller-skating, ice skating or skiing.
My earlier U.S. Pat. No. 6,311,990 describes an ice skateboard provided with blade runners spaced apart on trucks secured to the base of the board. Cornelius discloses in his U.S. Pat. No. 6,068,268 an in-line roller blading boot having two pairs of in-line rollers mounted on a truck, the forward pair being spaced from the rearward pair to provide a gap which may be used for acrobatic manoeuvres, such as sliding across raised, surfaces, or sliding down rails for example. The gap provides a bearing surface with which the rail for example engages to allow the blader to slide therealong without the rollers impeding travel.
Currently there appears not to be available a blading boot for ice-skating which would facilitate acrobatic manoeuvres of this kind.
Accordingly, there is a need for a blade insert assembly and frame for a blading boot that has a simple configuration enabling ice-skating acrobatics of the ‘extreme’ kind mentioned in relation to the prior art.
In this specification, the term ‘blader’ is used to indicate a skater using the blading boot.